''Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement'' (''Homme et femme devant un tas d'excréments'') is a 1935

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

on copper by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

Description

The painting was made on a piece of copper in the week between 15 and 22 October 1935. Miró said that the subject resulted from trying to represent the tragedy and torture of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. The painting was one of twelve known as the ''Wild Paintings''. Half of these were painted on copper whilst the remaining six were on the type of hardboard called

Masonite Masonite is a type of hardboard, a kind of engineered wood, which is made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood fibers in a process patented by William H. Mason. It is also called Quartrboard, Isorel, hernit, karlit, torex, treetex, and pr ...

. These were constructed in the period of public rioting in Spain that resulted in the Civil War. Miró said this painting was about a period of unease. The painting shows a man and woman reaching out for an embrace but neither of them are moving. The enlarged genitals and lurid colouring have been described as full of "disgust and a loathsome sexuality". The figures represented Miró's pessimism with the situation in Catalonia. This painting has been described as the "key painting" representing Miró's foreboding about the forthcoming civil war.Barcelona Travel Guides
''New York Times'', accessed September 2011 A

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

effect is created by the black sky against which the disjointed limbs of the figures are highlighted. Miró's choice of title was to use French and not Spanish. Miró said that the reference to excrement comes from a saying by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

who said that when it came to painting, rubies and diamonds were found in dung heaps.

Provenance

This picture was painted in

Mont-roig del Camp Mont-roig del Camp () is a town and municipality in the comarca of Baix Camp in Catalonia. It is in the middle of its comarca, between the Serra de Colldejou and the Mediterranean Sea. It includes two populated places: the historic town of Mont-ro ...

in 1935 and was in the possession of Pilar Juncosa Miró,Painting and Anti-Painting
City Review, 2008, accessed September 2009 but is now in the permanent collection of the

Fundació Joan Miró The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; "Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art") is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). History The idea for the foundation w ...

in Barcelona. Pilar Juncosa had been Miró's wife since 1929 and she was a supporter of his ''Foundation''. This painting is kept in the ''Pilar Juncosa Gallery'' at his Foundation.

References

External links

Fundació Joan Miró/Joan Miró Foundation

Description

Provenance

References

External links

Further reading